Bike Friday Crusoe

Late last year, I picked up a Bike Friday Silk from Craigslist up near Toledo. I was really impressed with the fold, but not so much with the ride. I didn't care for the complexity of the internally geared hub or the disc brakes. I offered it up for sale or trade on my various bike email lists, and ended up making a deal with Dan from Chicago. Over Christmas break, we met one Saturday in Indianapolis, about half way between us. The boys and I turned it into a road trip to visit Indy, though we ended up mostly just walking around downtown when we found out the 16 bit arcade is 21 and over only in Indiana. Dang. This is us at the downtown library:

Anyway, it was still an excuse to listen to our Trojan War podcast and go out for a steak dinner. And to get my new bike, a Bike Friday Crusoe from the same generation as my Silk:

The Crusoe was Bike Friday's sport model. It was built with the frame from the higher end road bikes, but with V brakes for bigger tire clearance. More on that later.

The bike came with a 3x9 Shimano drivetrain, but I already swapped this out for a 53t 1x setup. I don't really need a 15" low gear:

The lower part of the seat post is titanium, and it has very noticeable flex when I hit a bump while seated.

Alas, the seat mast doesn't fold forward like it did on my Silk. The seat mast (and the stem) simply remove with a bolt or quick release. This makes for a bit smaller package when everything is boxed up, and is a bit lighter, but I think it might be more of a hassle when I'm trying to just throw everything in my trunk. I'll have to see how it does in my travels.

The Crusoe also pivots behind the bottom bracket. The Silk pivoted with the bottom bracket and the chainstays as a unit. This made for a much cleaner fold as the chain (or belt, for the Silk) didn't move relative to the crankset. With the Crusoe, the chain tends to come off when I fold it. This improved somewhat when I replaced the triple crankset with the single ring and a chain guard, but it's still not as smooth as the Silk.

The bars are the Bike Friday H bars. I thought these would be too narrow, but they're actually quite comfortable. And note the painted to match stem. It's a good thing Dan and I are the same size!

My only complaint with the Crusoe is the front fork. The rear tire clearance is generous, looks like it could easily fit a 2" tire with a fender, but the tight fork limits me to about 35mm tires up front. These Schwalbe Kojaks are nice enough, but I'm spoiled by my fatter tires. If I like travelling with the Crusoe, I might ask BF about getting a New World Tourist fork for it:

I added my bags and racks, and I'm ready to roll:

It's a really nice riding bike. It has a lively, muscley feel that I was missing from the Silk. The fit is just right for me, and I like the simple brakes and drivetrain.

Compared to my Dahon, the BF is much more solid feeling bike, without the whole bike shimmy when I shake the bars. The longer chainstays make the bike a little less darty, even with the smaller tires.

So far, I really like how the Crusoe rides. I wish the drivetrain and seatmast folded like the Silk instead of turning the bike into a mini construction project whenever I travel with it. This is just theory at this point, however, as I'm just riding it around locally. I'll see how it goes with some more road trips this spring.